


A Cup of Warmth

by mywasteddream



Series: Turning Point Series [6]
Category: Arashi (Band)
Genre: AU, Friendship, Slice of Life, a slow fiction, slight angst, slight appearance of other Johnny's, slight appearance of sakurai sho
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-04
Updated: 2016-01-04
Packaged: 2018-05-11 17:01:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,681
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5634652
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mywasteddream/pseuds/mywasteddream
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Jun suddenly quit his job and moved to Shizuoka, Aiba felt like he could not just let his life go on as it is.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Cup of Warmth

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to everyone who has been reading my fanfics in 2015.  
> Happy New Year to you.
> 
>  
> 
> This slice of life takes place after right after **[The Only One Going Home](http://archiveofourown.org/works/2789558)**. I actually also wrote it right after that one, but never got to finish it until now because I was not sure how to explore Aiba's character.
> 
> unbetaed.  
> (edited for consistency)
> 
> It's recommended to read the fiction I linked above, because this is the continuation of that one.

After suddenly taking paid leave, there was something wrong with Jun. Masaki knew because he often found his team leader staring into space. The weirdest one was when Masaki was the one who found a mistake in their quote, when Jun almost submitted their proposal to Higashiyama, their department head. It was usually the other way around, because Jun was what Masaki was not, meticulous, careful, and detailed.

They entered the company at the same time, with 6 other people. Masaki remembered that day when he was seated next to Jun in the training session for new employees. Jun was wearing branded tie and very nice tailored suit, Masaki was wearing the same black suit from Aoki that he bought for job hunting and stripped olive green tie that he received as graduation gift from his parents. Jun was asking plenty of detailed question to the trainer, while Masaki was a little lost because he did not finish reading the thick file of the company's SOP the day before.

Masaki was not surprised that despite he and Jun were put in the same team, Jun received his promotion faster than the rest of the same batch. Jun worked twice harder than the rest of them.

 

"Matsumoto-senpai is quitting the company," Yamashita, their copywriter, told Masaki that afternoon.

He almost choke. "You're lying, he never told me anything." Jun was in the same team, to add to that, he was the team leader for the project.

"I heard about that too," Tegoshi, the new-comer in the team added, "He already started to shift his work to Nagashima-san. He will leave when the next advertisement is ready for on-air. Shibata-san told me."

Masaki gapped, "Why am I the only one not knowing about this?"

Tegoshi just raised his shoulders and shook his head. Yamashita just poked on his tonkatsu while saying, "mmmm..." for quite a while.

"He probably doesn't want to make you worried," he said after, "After all, without Matsumoto-senpai, you cannot do anything."

On that, Masaki slapped Yamashita's head, telling him that he was very rude to a someone older than him. Despite his laugh, though, he couldn't help a little frown when he saw Jun entering the cafeteria with Nagashima.

 

"Aiba-san, are you free this evening?"a voice startled Masaki. He hurried closing the online shopping window on his laptop and turned around. Jun was there, drawing a sigh and slightly rolling his eyes at Masaki's behavior.

"Oh, it's you," Masaki blurted, "yeah, I'm free. Why?"

"Just thought we haven't hung out together for a while. There's a good shop I recently found. Wanna go?"

"Sure," Masaki replied. Jun was about to leave when Masaki stopped him by the hand.

Jun raised his eyebrows. He did not appreciate being too personal in the office despite he was quite close to Masaki in private.

“I heard you’re quitting,” Masaki said.

With that Jun’s face softened. “Let’s talk about it later,” he said, setting his hand free from Masaki and went.

 

They sat in a small cubicle in chain izakaya. Jun ordered a plate of mixed yakitori and one of mixed preserved vegetables to go with their drink. Masaki had a beer, Jun had a high ball in front of him.

"As you probably have heard," Jun said after they clicked their glass and had a few bites of food, "I'm quitting the company."

Masaki nodded. He was upset at the fact that Jun did not say it to him before he told the rest, and he tried hard to keep it down. Jun definitely had his own reason.

"Did you find a better job?"

Jun looked away from Masaki and stared at the tapestry on the wall. It was a cheap tapestry, perhaps bought in a hundred yen shop. "I'm moving to Shizuoka," Jun said. His eyes looked far.

Masaki tilted his head. Shizuoka Prefecture and Jun did not fit each other. Jun was for Sangenjaya or Omotesando or Daikanyama. He was for Roppongi or Azabujuuban. Shizuoka sounded too quiet for Jun.

"What are you going to do there?"

"I found a place. I'll open a shop there. It's nothing big. But it's good enough."

Masaki plopped a piece of yakitori into his mouth. He knew Jun had always wanted to open a shop, but he did not expect that it would be that soon. Masaki wanted to ask, why Shizuoka, but what came out of his mouth was, "Can I visit you when you're settled?"

Jun nodded. "Just give me a call. I will not change my phone number."

 

Nothing much changed after Jun quit the office. Projects were still rolling, and the new team leader, Nagashima, was working as efficient as Jun. At the beginning, Jun's name was still mentioned by everyone from time to time, but as time flowed, they stopped mentioning him. Masaki missed him somehow. Nobody bothered to double-check his work anymore. He learned to notice more details.

 

He went out from the train in Fujinomiya Station. It had been three months since Jun left, but he still had not received any message. He managed to talk to Jun over the phone once, but Jun only said he was busy, on a Sunday.

He walked and looked around, not sure where to go. He had the address and a direction he printed at the office, but he had no idea how to get there. Perhaps he would have to get taxi if there was no bus.

He went to the bus stops and searched the name of the area. It seemed like he could take the bus that went to the lake, but he was not sure which stop he should go to. So Masaki looked around again and he saw a man carrying a box going out from a nearby shop.

"Excuse me," he called to the man.

"Yes?" The man had a pair of sleepy eyes and he was wearing overall that looked rather dirty.

"I'm going to this address, but I'm not sure which bus stop to go to. Do you happen to have any idea...." He showed the paper to the young man.

The man took the paper from Masaki's hand and studied it for some time before a revelation came to his eyes. "Ah! That guy? I pass by this area. Wanna come? You will have to wait for a long time for the bus."

"Are you sure?" Masaki asked.

"That's Matsumoto-san's place, right?" the man gestured at the piece of paper, "It's on the way anyway."

"You know J- Matsumoto-san?" Masaki asked again as he followed the man to the parking lot where an old pick-up was waiting.

"A customer," the man said as he put the box inside the cargo part. There were empty boxes there. "I'm Ohno, by the way, Ohno Satoshi." He gave a shy grin and gestured at Aiba to enter the truck.

"I'm Aiba, Aiba with 'leaf', not 'place'. Aiba Masaki. Thank you for offering the lift." He bowed a little as he said it.

The ride to Jun's place was quiet. At the beginning Masaki tried asking questions to Ohno about the city and the mountains, but when the young farmer did not seem to be answering much, Masaki decided to look at the scenery once the car started to climb the slopes at the mountain range across Mount Fuji. The place was indeed beautiful, like snapshots of postcards, but it felt too lonely for Masaki, who was used to be surrounded by a lot of people.

The car took a turn when Masaki saw a sign showing name of a gorge. He could not catch the name because the wooden sign weather-beaten and the writing was no longer clear. Masaki was not good with kanji anyway.

"This goes to the alternative hiking route. Most people would go for the main entrance because it is shorter walk and shorter climbing. But come autumn, the alternative road has the best autumn leaves around," Ohno explained, "only popular for locals, though. Tourists mostly go to Kawaguchi-ko instead."

They stopped at the end of the road, in front of a lone building. There was a small wooden sign in front of it, written "Turning Point" in Latin letters. There were two other cars already parked there.

"Here we are," Ohno pointed at the house. "It just opened a month ago. Matsumoto-san serves very good curry." He went out of the car as well and led Masaki to the cafe's door. "Seems like Detective Sakurai is here too." He pointed at one of the cars.

A bell chimed when they entered the establishment, and Masaki heard the very familiar and rather nasal voice of Jun, saying, "Welcome!"

Then there was a short pause, before the same nasal voice inhaled in surprise and said in almost a whisper, "Masaki!"

"I happened to meet him near the station," said Ohno as he went to the counter, where two men in suits was having lunch. "Good day, Detective Kato, Detective Sakurai!"

Masaki followed rather uncertainly, while Jun stood rooted behind the counter, forgetting that he was brewing coffee until the water threatened to spill over the filter. The cafe owner snapped back and put down the pour-over kettle. He walked out of the counter and stood face to face with his former office mate.

"I'm visiting," said Masaki as he gave his widest smile.

"How did you ...?"

Masaki shrugged, "I asked your sister. Sorry."

"Oh."

"Good to see you again. You're....."

Masaki did not know what to say. Jun looked more tired than before, and there was something in his eyes that made them looked rather somber, no, perhaps solemn was a better word to that. And Jun's hair has grown longer a bit, and he had stubbles on his chin, and the eyebrows not as well-shaped as the Jun that he knew. "Looking ... different. I mean, casual, I'm used to see you in suits," Masaki said. He stuttered a little.

"Welcome," Jun said, waving away Masaki's comment and stepped closer to take the guest by the elbow and took him to the counter. He introduced Masaki to the two men, who were police officers from the town at the bottom of the hill. The two officers were having their lunch break.

"How is the team going?" Jun asked as he replaced the coffee that he was preparing.

"We got new contract with the same client. Have you seen the advertisement yet?"

"Yeah, I saw," Jun paused, "Are you going to follow the same concept?"

Masaki nodded. "We like your idea for that product."

Jun smiled, still the same rather lopsided smile, though it did not really reach his eyes.

"Enough about me. How is your life here?"

Jun looked sideways at the three customers who were chatting lightly. "Alright, I guess. Getting by. It's just starting, and the place is not really accessible, but I have enough patron to keep away from going down to red."

"Ah so?" Was Masaki's comment.

"Jun-kun," one of the policeman called the cafe owner, and it made Masaki surprised with the intimacy of using first name basis. "We have to go now, else our chief will start asking. How much is it?"

"For both?"

The policeman nodded.

"¥2200."

The police gave three ¥1000 bills to Jun and when the owner gave the change, he also put a book on the table. "I finished this last night," Jun said, "Thank you. Do you have anything else? It gets boring when nobody's coming."

The police laughed lightheartedly. "I'll bring you something tomorrow, if I'm free." He took the book and followed the other policeman who already went out the establishment. "See you!"

Jun gave a light wave.

"You're close," Masaki accused as soon as the door was closed with a chime of the bell.

Jun did not really answer. He just shrugged and took the dirty utensils from the counter and asked Ohno if he needed anything since the farmer was still enjoying a cup of coffee while doodling on a piece of tissue paper.

"Do you want some tomato?" the man asked Jun instead, ignoring Jun's question. "We have too many left over that cannot be sold. The taste is okay, but they have scars."

"How much?"

"I'll bring you for free. Sick of eating tomato everyday."

Jun paused, while Masaki watched the conversation, and noticed the change in Jun's face to soften.

"Bring them to me and I'll make something."

"Great!"

And the man continued doodling.

"Have you had lunch?"

Masaki shook his head. "Not really."

"Great," Jun's smile widened, "You should try my curry." He took a plate and arranged a plate of curry rice with grilled vegetable topping. "My treat."

He put the plate in front of Masaki.

"Oh, and tea? Or just water?"

"Jun-kun." Masaki stopped Jun by the hand. Long fingers held Jun's wrist tightly. "Stop. Let's talk?"

Jun withdrew his hand from Masaki's grip and sat down across his guest.

"You never replied my mail," Masaki said, accusing and straight forward. But it was true and Jun did not deny it. He kept silent.

"And when I called, you cut off because you were busy."

"I was."

"And you never picked up anymore."

"I did not check my phone."

"Bullshit, Jun. You don't even return my call." Masaki pointed at Jun with his spoon. He sighed when Jun did not reply and instead looked at anywhere other than his guest.

Masaki noticed Ohno stood up from his seat, left several coins on the table and silently went out the shop. The happy chime was so out of place among the tension between Masaki and Jun.

"I'm sorry," Masaki said again, suddenly feeling sorry that he made Jun's acquaintance uncomfortable and left.

Jun's shoulders relaxed. "I'm the one who's supposed to say that."

Masaki looked up and stared at his friend. Jun hardly ever said sorry. Even if this time, too, he did really not say sorry, he implied on it.

"Jun-kun," Masaki considered what to say, but in the end he settled on, "you don't seem okay."

He reached out and put his hand on Jun's shoulder.

"I'm getting by," Jun said finally, "I'll be alright. Really."

Masaki sighed. He pulled back his hand and scooped another spoonful of curry and rice into his mouth. "This is very good, you know?" He said while chewing.

"Don't speak while eating," Jun muttered.

Masaki laughed, still with food inside his mouth, and Jun lightly hit him on the head. A smile formed again on Jun'a face, and this time Masaki was happy because it reached his eyes.

"Say, Jun," Masaki said after he swallowed, "I've been wondering why you ever moved here, but I will not ask you. Only, if you ever need anyone to talk to, you have me."

Jun's lips tightened. He gave a slight nod. "Thank you."

Masaki then decided to talk about other things, about pranks that Tegoshi did to other office mates, about demanding new client who asked for very fast services, and about other things in Tokyo. In the end Masaki was sent to the door when the sky had turned slightly darker and three elderly women came by for coffee after a hike.

 

When he reached to the weather-beaten sign at the bottom of the road, he found a truck and the farmer waiting for him. "I'll bring you back to town," he said.

He must have waited for several hours there.

"Did you wait?" Masaki asked as he entered the car.

"Yeah. Kind of." The farmer shrugged. He started the engine and drove down the hills.

"Your house is on the other side of these hills, right?" Masaki asked.

The farmer hummed.

"Thank you for the lift. Jun said that the bus is very scarce after sun down. It's really kind of you."

"It's nothing."

There was silence but the engine sound as the wheels rolled down the road. Masaki could see among the trees the glittering lights from the towns at the bottom, between Mount Fuji and the hills where they were.

"Matsumoto-san," Ohno said suddenly, "it's good that he has a friend like you."

Masaki looked at Ohno with questioning eyes. But the farmer did not answer. Instead he said again, "Matsumoto-san is very kind, you know? For us, it's just an obligation, hell, I even got paid as part time if I guide the police. He's totally on a different level." He sighed, "That building, it used to be a restaurant and souvenir shop. Went out of business because it's very inaccessible. I know Matsumoto-san is brimming towards bankrupt sooner or later. But he's -"

"Ohno-san," Aiba said, "I appreciate your intention, but please say nothing more. I would rather hear it from Matsumoto-san instead."

Ohno gave a lazy smile. "I understand." He sighed, "Please come often. Loneliness makes things overwhelming."

Masaki raised an eyebrow.

"Come again, any time. Come in the morning," the farmer said again, "I'll pick you up at the station. Just write down your phone number or email on the notebook inside the compartment. I'll give you mine later."

"You're actually making me more worried about Jun." Masaki pouted. But he found the said notebook and wrote his phone number and email in it.

"Sakurai-san told me to watch over him. But I'm not close to him."

"The detective?"

Ohno nodded.

"Oh."

Masaki looked at the farmer who went quiet. The car already entered road with houses on its left and right and the traffic became busier as it came closer to the city center. Masaki was conflicted. He wanted to know what actually happened to Jun that he suddenly moved to this unrelated place. Jun was a native Tokyoite, even bragging once that his family had been in Tokyo since Edo era. Why Shizuoka? Why in the middle of nowhere, since Jun loved people and crowds? On the other side, he wanted to trust that Jun would tell him when he was ready.

But what if he never be ready?

Why Ohno had to watch over Jun? And why the detective was so worried about Jun? And how close they were that he called Jun on first name basis? Did Jun call him on first name basis too?

"Aaaargh!!!" Masaki let out an exasperated sound and scratched his head fervently. Too many questions running around his mind.

Ohno watched with amused eyes.

"Are you alright?"

"I hate this! It's too confusing."

Ohno smiled again, a very soft smile. "We've arrived." He pointed at the station building. "Come again."

"I will." Masaki gave his promise.

 

But it took Masaki six weeks until he could fulfill his promise. He wanted to come earlier, but his team was overloaded with three parallel projects and he had to work even during the weekends.

At least Jun picked up his calls now. Masaki would talk about the office and Jun would say a thing or two about what happened in his shop. There was only a time when Jun sounded distracted and did not respond properly to Masaki's chatter on the phone. It was two weeks ago. Masaki asked if anything wrong and Jun only said that he had been feeling a bit under the weather, but over all fine. There was a tone that told Masaki not to pursue further, so he did not.

He called Ohno instead, but the young farmer just sighed and said, "Everybody would feel bad after such thing."

"What thing?"

"Sweeping. We had sweeping yesterday." The tone in Ohno's voice also seemed to ask not to pursue any longer.

But Masaki was too curious at the behavior and pursued anyway, "What sweeping?"

There was a long sigh on the other side of the phone. Masaki could make muffled arguments there, Ohno, and someone he called Old Man, perhaps his father, about disgrace to the town and cursed people who disturb their backyard. Then Masaki heard scrapping of wood, footsteps, and sound of door being opened and closed.

"I'm sorry, my old man always gets angry whenever we found them during sweeping," Ohno said again.

"What them?"

A pause. Then, "Dead bodies."

Masaki opened his mouth and closed it again, not sure what to say.

"I shouldn't say this to anyone, actually," Ohno's voice came up again, "Most people in this town are oblivious about it. Only the police, fireman squad and my family, well, now Matsumoto-san included, are helping the sweep."

"Jun too?"

There was another sigh. Then Ohno said, "He has his reasons."

There was silence. And then Ohno's voice was heard again from the speaker, "Come here when you have time. Matsumoto-san is the type who needs people around him."

"I will."

 

He found Ohno at the station. Still the same over-all, still the same sleepy look. It was in the middle of summer school holiday, and the station was a little more crowded.

"Here!" The farmer waved, and Masaki came closer half-running. He had his back-pack today, planning to coax Jun to let him stay over.

Ohno took him to Jun's place and said to him before they exited the car, "Just in case Jun does not let you stay over, call me. You can stay over at my house."

They entered the establishment together, but Ohno did not linger for so long. He only came in to pass some vegetables, those with ugly shapes and not fit to sell. The shop had several customers that day. And it was the first time that Masaki realized how the place was facing Mount Fuji. The mountain perfectly framed by the window sill and trees.

Jun looked a bit thinner than before, but he already shaved, and his rather long hair was pulled into a ponytail. He waved at Masaki and Ohno when they entered, then continued to be busy behind the counter and served the customers.

At the beginning Masaki just went upstairs to put his bag, sat by the counter and talked lightly with Jun, when he was not busy. But then he decided to help when more people came as it reached lunch time. It was out of habit since he was used to helping in his parents' restaurant until he graduated from university. Masaki noticed that Jun was watching him with a smile as Masaki greeted the guests and talked with them. He liked working on the floor rather than the kitchen. It gave him excitement to meet people, which was why he did not succeed his father's restaurant, because in his family, succeeding the restaurant means that he had to stay in the kitchen instead.

"You're a natural," Jun said when lunch rush was over.

"I used to do this when I was young."

Jun hummed. He made a fresh cup of coffee for Masaki and said he'd go and wash the dishes at the back. "Hold the fort for me?" Jun asked.

Masaki nodded. And right before Jun went to the back, Masaki asked, "Mind if I stay here for the night? We can catch up."

Jun hesitated for a while, but then he nodded. "I have extra futon."

 

The living quarter on the second floor was barren. There was a TV and a carpet on the landing, and further from the stairs were three rooms. Jun said that his is the one in the inner most and asked Masaki to help him carry spare futon from it. The spread the futon in the room nearest to the stairs, a western style room. But they then moved to the middle room, an empty Japanese style room, for a drink.

They opened beer cans, courtesy of Masaki , who carried them when he came. Jun had made some snacks. The talk started with talks about the office, and then Jun told about trying new recipe for the coming autumn. Masaki thought that Jun really had fun running the small establishment. It sounded tiring, though, and it was no wonder how Jun lost weight.

But when the snacks were out and they already opened the last cans of beer, Jun went quiet. Jun, who usually became more excited the more he drank, nursing the can quietly, eyes looking across the room and over the window toward the mountain.

Masaki went quiet too, watching his best friend.

"You want to ask, why Shizuoka, right?" Jun said suddenly. His voice was a light whisper.

Masaki only gave a nod, although Jun was not looking his way.

"Someone I knew was found around here a few months back. It just happened that my email was the only one to identify him." He went quiet again.

"Found?" Masaki asked, he could grasped what it meant, because he heard about the sweep from Ohno, but he could not help but clarify.

"They found his body in the forest."

"Oh...."

"You don't sound surprised."

"Ohno-san told me about the sweep," then he added, "No, he never said anything about your friend."

"Friend?" Jun's lips curled to a smirk. Then he gave a long sigh, "if he were a friend he might still be alive by now." He laughed, "if he had had a friend, he might have still been alive."

Masaki scooted closer to Jun.

"It was not your fault."

"I know." He took a gulp of his beer. "Logically, I know. It's just that... I don't know." He sighed again. "I just thought that I should have done something. Anything."

And he went quiet again. Masaki scooted even closer and sat beside Jun. He just let his friend knew that he was there, even though he knew that he too was helpless. He knew Jun understood because he felt Jun reclined a little towards him despite not touching.

"Is that why you opened up the cafe here?" Masaki asked after some time.

"The road next to this shop. Sho-chan, Detective Sakurai, if you remember him, said that this is one of the roads to access the inner forest. The hike from here is flat. And there are unmarked tracks."

He scoffed at himself. "That doesn't mean I could stop anyone, though."

Masaki smiled. "Maybe you had. You never know."

"You're just trying to make me feel better."

"Maybe." Masaki leaned his head on Jun's shoulder. He did not say anything about an elderly man he happened to serve that afternoon, who told him that Jun's coffee was the best thing he ever had in life. The old man told him that Jun invited him for a coffee when he was still renovating the building and the restaurant was not open yet.

"At that time, I thought nobody wanted to talk to me anymore," said the old man when Masaki engaged in a conversation with the old man when he came over to the customer to ask if he needed anything else.

"You're heavy," Jun complained when he felt Masaki's weight had pressed against him for some time. But when he turned around, he found that his friend was already sleeping.

 

It was a weekday in the middle of fall, when the mountains had turned shades of yellow and red, when Masaki came back to the shop for the third time.

"What are you doing here?" Jun asked. Then he saw the huge bag that Masaki brought.

"I'm moving in. It's really hard to run a restaurant alone, right?"

"Wait, how about your job?"

"I quit. I guess I'm more made to do the floor." He stopped to pull a piece of paper from his bag, "Here. My CV. Please accept me as a worker here. I heard from Ohno-san that you're looking for a part time worker."

"Only for weekends."

"Oh...."

"And you're over qualified for a part time restaurant worker."

"Oh!" Masaki looked down.

But at the same time, Jun's face brightened and he grinned widely. "But if you want to invest in the restaurant and share ownership with me, I'll gladly accept you. It's kinda lonely when it's not peak season."

Masaki looked up and jumped to give Jun a very tight hug.

"Thank you." Masaki thought he heard Jun's voice in his ear.

**Author's Note:**

> The curry served by Jun in this fanfic was inspired by a menu of a restaurant which was featured in Arashi ni Shiyagare Ii Mise Kudoi Mise once. A friend of mine took me there last Christmas and the taste was very, very, very good, that even after having a huge lunch and eating a piece of cake along Sobu-sen, I could still finish the serving.  
> This is also a happy birthday celebration for Arashi's sunshine.  
> 相葉さん、ありがとう。  
>   
> And just to note on something, the other day a friend of mine shared this campaign not to watch The Forest. Although I believe in freedom to create a fiction, I also share the sentiment that putting Aokigahara as the setting of the movie is a little unwise. It's rather insensitive to use it as a horror movie.  
> The Turning Point is inspired by writings on Aokigahara and other famous suicide spots in Japan. The one that inspired me the most is about this elderly who had a coffee shop near suicide spot, which I used as an idea for Jun's character.


End file.
